Welcome! All My Relations is a podcast hosted by Matika Wilbur (Swinomish and Tulalip), and Temryss Lane (Lummi Nation) to explore our relationships— relationships to land, to our creatural relatives, and to one another. Each episode invites guests to delve into a different topic facing Native American peoples today. We keep it real, play some games, laugh a lot, and even cry sometimes. We invite you to join us!
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Three incredible women, Sierra Ornales (Diné ), Jana Schmieding (Mniconjou and Sicangu Lakota) and Tazbah Rose Chavez (Nüümü, Diné and San Carlos Apache tribes) join All My Relations to talk about the comedy scene, sisterhood and above all else— laughter as a way of life. These are the the women that brought us Rutherford Falls, and you may have also seen Jana in Reservation Dogs, but these amazing women have been working in television for years. We feel very lucky to be in conversation with the...
As an Indigenous documentary filmmaker, what does it mean to tell true stories in a good, ethical way? How do we protect and respect our communities while sharing our stories with broader audiences? How do our teachings inform our storytelling? On our newest episode we talk with Cherokee Nation filmmaker Brit Hensel about her work as a visual storyteller and her responsibilities to community. As part of our third episode in our series of live recordings from Santa Monica College, we had the chan...
Brooke Pepion Swaney (Blackfeet/Salish) and Kendra Potter (Lummi) join All My Relations for “Native Children Belong in Native Homes.” This heartfelt, vulnerable and raw story is centered around their film, “Daughter of A Lost Bird”, which follows Kendra, an adult Native adoptee, as she reconnects with her birth family, discovers her Lummi heritage, and confronts issues of her own identity. Her singular story echoes many affected by the Indian Child Welfare Act and the Indian Adoption Project. ++...
Sterlin Harjo (Muskogee/Seminole) and Ryan Redcorn (Osage), join All My Relations for a live podcast to discuss how Native representation in Hollywood can be done right (or Rez-dogged). The conversation is packed with giggles, the importance of sharing opportunities with your community, the power of creating all Native spaces in entertainment and the journey from the 1491s to now. The tone of this episode is slightly different than some of our more narrative episodes, mostly because you get to h...
This episode delves into higher education for Native students. While colleges and universities around the US are releasing land acknowledgements, the Indigenous students who come from these lands make up only 1% of college students nationally. We know college can be a source of power and strength for our communities, but we also know the experiences of Native students in college can be difficult and heartbreaking. If higher education in predominantly white, colonial, western institutions is pote...
When Adrienne took time away from All My Relations to focus on her academic obligations, Dr. Dr. Dez stepped into the co-hosting role with Matika. Since then, we have had some great conversation, laughs, and cries with our favorite data warrior, sociologist, demographer, and friend. Desi has been an invaluable member of the team and it was incredible to hear her stories, thoughts and feelings. Now, another time of flux is upon us and we will once again be hearing from the iconic Adrienne and Mat...
All My Relations is proud to offer the third episode in our series on Afro-Indigenous topics, “Black & Native Futures: Liberation and Sovereignty”, a conversation with Nikkita Oliver, hosted by Matika Wilbur and Dr. Dr. Desi. Nikkita is a scholar and activist who works at the intersection of arts, law and education. They have supported social justice efforts from No DAPL (No Dakota Access Pipeline) to working in the CHOP/CHAZ (Capitol Hill Occupied Protest/ Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone) duri...
Join Matika Wilbur and Dr.Dr. Desi for part two in this series, “Black Native Kinship”, a powerful conversation with Afro-Indigenous activist Amber Starks. Amber is a Black woman and enrolled member of the Miscogee (Creek) Nation. Her activism seeks to normalize, affirm and uplift multidimensional identities of Black and Native peoples. Together we explore how relationally is rooted in kinship, how Indigenous people can aid in the dismantling of Anti-Blackness and how ultimately, Black liberatio...
Back in 2020, after the murder of George Floyd and during the Black Lives Matter uprisings that followed, All My Relations started a journey to support the Black community and Afro Indigenous relatives through having conversations on police brutality, anti-blackness, Indian Country’s connection to chattel slavery, and Afro-Indigenous history. This first episode in the series features an interview with Harvard professor Tiya Miles. Professor Miles is a scholar, historian, and writer whose work ex...
The Border Crossed Us is led by Jon Ayon , an AMR team member who conducted field research to gather the stories of peoples and Tribes at the southern settler colonial border between the United States and Mexico. This political border was drawn with no respect for the Indigenous peoples that live there — with land claims that predate both colonial governments. Now families and cultures are separated on either side. There are current cultural and religious permits in place for Native peoples to c...
This episode explores the deeply personal and often challenging journeys of reconnecting to Indigenous communities and identities. Guests Daniel French and Dr. Adrienne Keene share their powerful stories of rediscovering their Mohawk and Cherokee roots, respectively, highlighting the profound impact of colonization on kinship systems and the resilience required to reclaim these connections. They discuss the importance of intentionality, humility, and giving back to community, offering hope and guidance for others on similar paths.
“The Truth about Thanksgiving” is the first installment of a series we’re calling “Lies your teacher taught you”. In this episode we sit down with Matika and her 13-year-old nephew to teach about the true history of European and Native contact. As this episode is with a new teenager, we wanted to show that this is not a hard conversation to have, and most people do not want to be lied to - which is what rehashing the myth does. Ultimately, it stems from a limited perspective of history. The Than...
Join us for an episode all about snaggin’! For part two of All My Loving Relations , we continue our conversation with the phenomenal Geraldine King, and bring in comedian Deanna Diaz (aka Dianna M.A.D.). Join us as we embark on a teepee creepin’ journey of all things S-E-X. Some things to look forward to: stories from our own aunties, the sacred power of self-pleasure, and some “dang cackle-able” jokes. Because of Christianity, and other colonizing forces, we don’t really know how to talk about...
Love is something we all need, cherish, and desire in our lives. As Indigenous people we have always known that being in good relation with people, creatures, and the land is integral to wellbeing. Western science is just catching up to discover what we have known for time immemorial. Indeed, love and relationships are arguably the most important things in life. As settler colonial trauma and violence such as boarding schools have damaged our ability to love we know it is important to discuss ho...
Since the onset of colonization Indigenous women have experienced violence with reckless abandon, today it is a public health emergency. Traditionally, many of our Native societies are matrilineal but settler colonialism has disrupted our traditional value systems. These shifts have tragically contributed to the epidemic of violence we see committed against our women and Two Spirit relations. The issue is systemic and this episode discusses how we must hold systems and people accountable. Mary K...
In this episode we explore our ceremonies related to birth and question what it means to rematriate through motherhood. What are our traditional birthing ceremonies? What about our coming of age ceremonies? How do we reclaim our sexualities? How has colonization disrupted our traditional birthing practices? Join us in discussion with AMR co-hosts Matika Wilbur, Dr.Dr.Desi and honored guest Temryss Lane, as we unpack some of these questions. Temryss is an Indigenous sports icon from the Lummi Nat...
This episode marks the 12th and final episode of Season Two. What a wild, magical, beautiful and tragic year it has been— a season of dramatic change: personally, professionally, spiritually, and as we say in the episode “you are allowed to feel all the feelings”. And we have! With the global pandemic, heavy social movements, politics (in general), adapting to a socially distanced world, it has been a real collective moment of transformation. And behind the scenes, our AMR podcast underwent mass...
Please join us for the third and final piece of our series on the movement to protect Mauna Kea. We have been incredibly humbled and blessed to have reported on the movement, and are so grateful to everyone who made this possible. During the pandemic as tourist numbers have dropped, fish have returned in areas in Hawai’i where they have been absent for years. The land is healing itself. Despite the toll excessive tourism and capitalism has taken on the Hawaiian islands; there is still hope to he...
This is part two in our series For the Love of the Mauna which shares the story of Native Hawaiians’ effort to protect Mauna Kea. The first episode gave us the background and story of the beginning of the TMT fight and the cultural foundations of Mauna Kea. This segment focuses on the resistance camp at Pu’u huluhulu which was established during the summer of 2019 on the Mauna. This ended up garnering attention because it was the largest mobilization of law enforcement in the history of Hawaii t...
This special three part series is a story about land, culture, and connections to place—it's the story to protect Mauna Kea on the Island of Hawaii. Kanaka Maoli people have been fighting to stop the construction of the thirty meter telescope (TMT) since it's inception in 2009, and in the summer of 2019 a resistance camp at Pu’u huluhulu was established on the Mauna. Mauna Kea is the tallest mountain on earth from the sea floor to its summit. For Native Hawaiians, it is considered the most sacre...
This episode talks with Wampanoag scholars Paula Peters and Linda Coombs, who tell us the real story of Thanksgiving, from an Indigenous Perspective. Thanksgiving is a time for people to come together with their families and give thanks for the blessings in their lives; but the American holiday is rooted in historical fallacy and upholds tired settler colonial belief systems. Instead, let's begin to understand the real story of Thanksgiving and the complex history undergirding this event in rela...
Today is Indigenous Peoples' Day, and today is a good day to talk about how we can protect and uplift our communities. One way we can do that is by voting. That is a complicated suggestion for Native America, and on this episode, we discuss why. Vote to make Indigenous voices heard. Vote because informed voting is activism. Vote for our ancestors that died for the right to do it. Vote because even though this isn’t our system, it is the system we live within. Vote for land back. Vote for Missing...
Join Matika and Adrienne In conversation with Jami Powell (Osage), Jaclyn Roessel (Diné) and Kristin Dorsey (Chickasaw), for the third and final episode of Indigenous Artist to Artist, Part 3: Who Decides? as we discuss the importance of indigenous people presenting, curating, and exhibiting themselves. As always, thank you to Ciara Sana for her amazing episode art, and Teo Elisio , for doing all the things. Thank you Max Levin for the music!!! Special thanks to Kristin Bolan and Will Paisley fo...
We welcome you into this intimate laughy conversation with three awesome full time artists--Photographer Ryan Redorn (Osage), painter Yatika Star Fields (Cherokee, Creek and Osage) and traditional tattoo artist Holly Nordlum (Inupiaq) for this second episode of Indigenous Artist to Artist as we discuss the importance of indigenous people holding space in the art world, the difference between help and inherent power, while we dare to imagine an otherwise— how beautiful might our world be if Nativ...
Mid-August every year is usually when Matika and Adrienne head out to New Mexico to get #SantaFancy, visit artist friends, and partake in all of the joy of Santa Fe Indian Market--the largest Native art market in the US. Like everything, Art Market was canceled in person this year, leaving us worried about and missing our artsy relatives. So we decided to launch a mini-series on Native art and artists! The goal of this series of episodes is two fold. In a world of cultural appropriation and “Nat...
Join us for a discussion with community organizer, citizen scientist, activist, water protector, entrepreneur, writer, gardener, and all around incredible Diné woman, Kim Smith. We talk with Kim about her work, aiming to understand how violence on the land is violence on our bodies, and that the inverse can also be true— healing the land is healing ourselves . Kim tells us about her 1200+ mile journey with Nihígaal Bee Lina (Journey For Existence) which walked to all of the sacred mountains of h...
Join us for a discussion with Well For Culture founders Thosh Collins (WhaZhaZi, Haudenosaunee and O’otham) and Chelsea Luger (Anishinaabe & Lakota) as we discuss Whole Family Wellness. We cover an indigenous approach to prenatal, baby, postpartum, fatherhood, and a whole family approach to wellness. They study and implement lifestyle teachings of indigenous ancestors, while incorporating new information to contribute to ancient and ongoing chains of knowledge. Indigenous culture has always ...
Today we launch Season 2 of All My Relations : “Growing New Beginnings”! This episode was recorded around the new year when the world was functioning without Covid-19, and we were emerging from our off-season hibernation, reveling in new life, and trying to figure out a healthy and wellness-focused way forward. Then, things changed, and we sat on the episode for a bit. We decided to bring the conversation up to speed with the current moment and talk about how we’re riding out the pandemic in our...
This bonus episode explores the impacts of Covid-19 in tribal communities. Even though tribal nations are most at risk, Indigenous voices have been widely left out of mainstream news coverage. Nationally, health experts and tribal leaders are sounding the alarm that Native Americans are particularly vulnerable to the spread of Covid-19. During this time of crisis, it is critically important to hear from national leadership. Listen in to hear conversation between Matika and New Mexico’s First Dis...
Hundreds of years ago when colonizers instituted the idea of “blood quantum” as a means of reducing the Native population, our Native ancestors probably did not envision a modern Indigenous world of Tinder, multi-billion dollar tribal enterprises and per cap payments, or a world where who we love might determine if our children are considered Indigenous at all. Last episode we talked about Blood Quantum through history, law, science, and policy. In this episode, we’ll approach the topic on a mor...
